Kobe Bryant was ice cold last night, shooting 6-of-28. That of course has led to the standard black or white Kobe discussion on the internet — his defenders act as if he can do no wrong, his detractors think he shoots for his ego not because he’s one of the game’s great all time shooters.

As with all things Kobe, it’s not that simple.

Kobe and the Lakers are adjusting to major changes — Mike Brown’s new offense and the shift of the Lakers to an inside-out offensive team. Here is what Brown told the Los Angeles Daily News.

“We got a couple of things we can run to get (Kobe) in his sweet spots,” Brown said. “I’m still trying to figure out that, too. We’ve got a guy like (Andrew) Bynum, we’ve got a guy like (Pau) Gasol, who deserve touches. You always want to play in the flow. We’re all kind of feeling our way right now.”

Kobe is now a primary ball handler on the pick-and-roll and that’s a big adjustment from the actions of the triangle. Unleashed like this Kobe’s nature is to attack — and so he takes on more of the offensive load. He has a usage rate of 38.2 (basically percentage of possessions used when he is on the floor), which is the highest it has been since the Smush Parker/Kwame Brown era in Los Angeles.

Just like those seasons, when Kobe starts off shooting 1-of-10 like he did Sunday night he will keep shooting because Kobe has shot his way out of slumps for 15 seasons. His incredible confidence in himself is a reason he has 28,000 career points. He still sees himself as the best scoring option.

But Kobe has to adjust.

The Lakers beat Denver the night before because despite having Nene the Nuggets can’t stop Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. For two games Bynum is averaging 23.5 points per game shooting 66.7 percent — feed the man the ball.

Kobe is the only guy who can really create his own shot on the perimeter for this Lakers squad, Kobe is going to be the guy with the ball in his injured hands. But he must learn to be a distributor more than just a scorer. For the sake of the Lakers he has to approach it differently. He has to feed the post more. He has to get himself to the post more. The Lakers need to work inside out.

The Lakers have the size and skill up front that no team can match. That is where they are going to win games, that is where they are going to advance deep into the playoffs (that and defense). Kobe still needs to be Kobe, but a modified version. Sort of like the Lakers themselves.

Can Kobe adapt? Can the Lakers? It may take time, but if they can they are a threat in the West. If not, things will end early for an older Lakers team.

Tom Benson, the now 90-year-old owner of the New Orleans Pelicans and the NFL’s Saints, a few years back changed around the succession of control of the team after his passing — his wife Gayle will take control. Rita Benson LeBlanc, Benson’s granddaughter and former handpicked successor, sued saying Benson had been manipulated. After meeting privately with Benson, a judge ruled that while Benson suffered some “cognitive impairment” he was capable of making his own decisions and that Gayle remained the successor.

Benson has been sued multiple times since then, including by former Saints employee Rodney Henry, and the then-89-year-old Benson was deposed in that case last year.

During another set of questions, apparently aimed at establishing how close Benson and Henry had been, Benson was shown a photo of the two men with Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

“Who is this?” Williams asked.

“It’s Rodney and a basketball player,” Benson said. “Oh, hell, I forget his name. Let me — he’s a great player for us. Tell me his name, and I will tell you yes or no.”

When asked “is it Anthony Davis,” Benson said yes. The man is 90, I’m not sure that we should expect much. He had the foresight to bring in people to run his businesses — including his sports teams — and set up a line of succession for when he does pass. Smart moves.

Would Benson’s mental state impact potential changes coming to the Pelicans? Probably not. New Orleans’ GM Dell Demps bet big on going big in a league trending smaller, pairing Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. If that doesn’t work out, plenty of people around the league expect a house cleaning on the basketball side with the Pelicans. Benson’s mental state, whatever it may be, does not impact that.

The deposition leak came from an anonymous source (and anonymous email account, the paper verified the document before publishing). Who leaked it? It may be nearly impossible to find out, but only one side benefits from all this becoming public. And it’s not Benson.

A few years back in Philadelphia, the athletic K.J. McDaniels was a highlight factory and looked like a guy who could develop into a role player on the wing in the NBA.

Except, he never actually developed. Houston gave him a chance (three years at a total of $10 million), and it didn’t work out, then last season Brooklyn had him for 20 games, but they decided to move on.

Now Toronto is going to give him a chance, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

McDaniels’ agent later confirmed the news. This is a training camp, make-good contract for McDaniels. But unlike a lot of those contracts being handed out around this time, there is space on the Raptors roster for a player or two.

Before the KJ McDaniels partial, Toronto had $116.6M in guaranteed salary with 13 players + the $100K partial of Alfonzo McKinnie.

McDaniels will compete with Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer for one of the final roster spots in Toronto. Of that group, I’d most likely want to keep McDaniels because of the shot blocking and his potential — but his outside shot has to improve.

The Raptors can carry 15 on the roster and very possibly will until at least Jan. 10, which is the date these partially guaranteed deals become fully guaranteed for the season. Toronto is flirting with the tax line, and ownership is not going to want to pay the tax for this team, so if they do carry 15 they likely will cut it to 14 by that date.

The #DriveByDunkChallenge has been a fun distraction this summer. If you don’t know what it is, it essentially involves NBA players jumping out of their cars to dunk on regular folks on community basketball hoops.

There are still some serious doubts about whether the Celtics will be able to unseat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but perhaps they won’t need to wait for long. Rumors are starting to trickle in about LeBron James leaving Ohio, so maybe by the time we are used to seeing Hayward in Celtics green next season they will have less competition out east.